2am on a Friday Morning

Still

16x20" Sold
© 2010 Megan Chapman

I painted Still at the same time I worked on Upon Waking, the large painting I shared last week. This piece was a quiet spot that I could visit when the large painting was giving me trouble. This painting seemed to flow and come together quickly and without strife. I enjoy the fresh subtle colors radiating out and away from the lines and against the milky white. I am very pleased this painting has found a wonderful home in England, and will be headed there soon.

This week, I had a harder time focusing on painting and got caught up with administrative work at the Fayetteville Underground. However I did manage start another large 36x48" canvas, and I believe this one will be horizontal in orientation. We will see how it all works out. Next week will mostly be about preparing the galleries for the next First Thursday at the Fayetteville Underground. I am looking forward to having Thomas Petillo's photographs in the Hive for the month September. Not only will he have his work in the Hive but he will be in town for the reception!

Thomas Petillo

Hive Gallery

Thomas Petillo : North, West, East, South
September 1st through October 2nd 2010
Opening Reception September 2nd 5-8pm

Thomas Petillo is perhaps best known for his strikingly intimate portraits of great musicians (Robert Plant, Ben Folds, John Prine, Kid Rock and Porter Wagoner, to name only a few).Thomas has spent fifteen years honing the skills necessary to produce these beautiful images for record labels, magazines, and ad agencies. These portraits have come to define his style. But a very different Petillo has emerged in the last few years as the result of a series of commissions by Hammock, the ambient duo, who asked him to create images for their recordings. No matter his subject, Petillo's images are characterized by a delicate balance of stark realism and magical wonder, as if he stands with one foot in the spirit and the other in the flesh. This rare talent has given his work a singular imprint and has earned for him a distinguished place among contemporary photographers.

I hope all the locals will come out in droves and get to know Thomas' beautiful work and meet the artist himself. We have a wonderful September in store for you at the Underground, to read more about all the exhibitions that will be featured visit the Fayetteville Underground Blog.

And before all that kicks off, on this Saturday, August 28th at 11:00 am at the Underground. I will be giving an informal art talk on the exhibition Ghosts in the landscape #2, currently on display in the Hive by Christian Demare. This will be the final day of the exhibition, and I hope folks will come down and explore further Christian's dark, mysterious photographic worlds.

Those are the simple nuts and bolts of this artist's life for this week. There was more to it than all that, and I would like to write more about my process or my personal feelings about my art or the art world in general but the simple reportage style seems to work currently.

If you have bought my art either recently or long ago, if you have talked to me about my work, or taught me, if you have shared music with me that has inspired my art, or just supported me emotionally while I work, I just want to say thank you. I can't work alone in a vacuum, and the support I receive near and far is directly proportional to the work I put out. So, if you think I am a prolific artist, it is only because I have prolific supporters, so from the bottom of my heart I thank you all.

And as always, keep fighting. The world needs your art.

In the studio with: Still, Upon Waking,
Somehow we find ourselves on the same continent, and Sometimes

good things and the question of balance

Let's see... Hello?
I don't think anyone reads this thing anymore, but I enjoy the routine. I think? No, I know I do, and I always like to be able to look back and see what was going on in my little corner of the art world.

First of all, the Christian Demare exhibition in the Hive Gallery is still just so dark, rich, and lovely. Yesterday, while taking a break from painting, I walked out of my studio and just looked at the work again; letting myself become absorbed into his dark worlds. I am so lucky to be able to work around such great and varied art at the Fayetteville Underground. It truly is inspiring. If you are local or regional please come to the Underground to view Christian Demare's exhibition, Ghosts in the Landscape #2. The Fayetteville Underground is open W-F 12-7 and Saturday 10-5. This world class exhibition will remain up through August 28th.

Speaking of work, I was the lucky recipient of two large 36x48" canvases from a lovely patron this week. I usually only paint 40x30" as my largest size, due to the shipping charges for over sized canvases. I am very grateful to be able to experiment with painting larger again. I haven't painted this size since art school, when I would stretch my own. So, I have been working on the behemoth this week. I love a challenge, and that is what it has been, marks that make sense on a smaller canvas don't on a larger one, and of course it takes a lot more paint. Then there is that voice that says- you are repeating yourself, this looks just like all the other ones... I just have to turn the music up a little louder to drown out that voice. I hear there is even a larger canvas coming my way soon!

In other news, some of you may remember a collaborative paper painting that artist Steven Heaton and I have been working on. "Delay before Abandon" Well, our painting is going to be in the Chaosmos 2010 exhibition as part of the Liverpool Independents Biennial. I have been friends with Steven for over three years now, and we are both very pleased to be in an exhibition together. I am very excited about this opportunity, as I have my work in many private international collections, but have never been a part of an exhibition overseas. I have seen the other pieces that Steven will have in the exhibition, and I have to say they are really exciting. I plan to do another blog feature on Mr. Heaton in the near future to share his latest and greatest works with you all. I have a lot to say about them.

Also this week, a big sale came through for me! A two panel (diptych) 40x60" painting called Stamina and Refrain from the Evidence of the Disappearance series found a good home. It serves as a reminder, that it takes time to find homes for our art, but usually a home is found. It may take years and we may have our doubts, but hopefully it will happen. Stamina and Refrain was a special painting to me for many reasons, and I couldn't be happier that it has found a place in the world. Painting sales have been picking up since April which is a wonderful feeling. I have sold sixteen paintings in the past four and a half months and I am grateful. I hope that everyone is enjoying my work, and I hope they realize how important they are to me as I continue on this path. A sale is more than just money in the bank for living and supplies, but it is the validation and encouragement that I thrive on and that helps me to continue on and make more art.

I am still thinking about the issue of balance, which has always been a concern and has popped up in numerous posts in my blog over the years. I have never been good at balance, being more of an all or nothing type of person. I know this is not healthy, and I keep trying to work it out. When I am not painting, talking or writing about my own art, I am talking with other artists, helping them with their art, sharing my resources, encouraging them to continue, curating shows, and helping at the Underground etc. I love doing this, but I do wonder if I am not hiding in my work at times. It is my passion, it is what I am here to do. I am here to tell stories, make connections, take photographs, paint paintings and then share it with the global arts community and beyond. I know this is my purpose on the planet, but I still need to remember to touch the ground on occasion. Anyway, just some thoughts.

I've become one of those people...



Thanks for stopping in, see you next week?

Ghosts in the Landscape #2

Oh the weeks are flying by...

Let's see. This week feels a little disjointed. I painted, photographed and wrote but I have nothing to show you (yet). My main focus this week was on a lot of underground studio related business and preparation for next week's First Thursday opening. As some of you know, I am curating another photography exhibition in the Hive gallery within the Fayetteville Underground. This time the work is by French photographer, Christian Demare. The exhibition is titled Ghosts in the Landscape #2 and contains 46 images all in the square format.

I have long be an admirer of Christian's dark and dreamy worlds and I am thrilled to be able to present his work to my local community. Again, I am thankful that the Internet makes this global arts community possible. I will let you know how the opening goes next week.

Christian Demare

Press Release:
Christian Demare
Ghosts in the Landscape #2
Hive Gallery

Christian Demare is a photographer living and working in Paris, France. His exhibition, Ghosts in the Landscape #2 will be featured in the Hive Gallery at the Fayetteville Underground during the month of August. After exploring drawing, painting and engraving, it is photography that Christian has turned to in recent years. Exhibitions and publications punctuate this prolific artist's life entirely devoted to his work, research and experimentation. Recently his work entered a period of greater visibility, with exhibitions at the French Institute in Thessaloniki, Greece as part of the 2010 Photo-Biennale, and at Les Insolites, in Tangiers, Morocco. Artist Megan Chapman, always inspired and impressed by Christian's dark, lush and mysterious photographic worlds asked the artist if he would consider having an exhibition at the Fayetteville Underground, she was thrilled when he agreed.

About his work, Christian Demare writes, "Stopping for a moment, seeing, trying to take the time to look at things humbly; between contemplation and meditation. Trying to offer a view of the immensity of things, approaching the others, touching the palpitations of life. Offering people a view, expanding their perspective, feeling and touching reality with the fingertips.This reality that contains all the tragic and the magic. All the light and the incredible hope.The torn hearts and the dazzling nature.The deadly boredom and the absolute love. My art is figurative even if sometimes the subject disappears; my art is narrative even if the stories are fragmentary.The images are nothing other than furtive traces and testimonies; a few clues left here and there…"

The exhibition will remain up through August 28th.
The Fayetteville Underground
Basement of One East Square Plaza
East side of the Historic Fayetteville Square.
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Gallery Hours W-F 12-7pm
Saturday 10-5pm
4 galleries: Open Studios
www.fayettevilleunderground.com
www.fayettevilleunderground.blogspot.com

why I like to drown...

wall 4 institute du loop (detail)

The institute du loop's premier international exhibition debuted last night in the hive gallery within the Fayetteville underground to a First Thursday packed house. It was a thrill for me to be able to talk about the institute's work with the crowds and to explain my involvement in the project. I was so pleased to witness the moment that some of the viewers connected with the work, taking the time to look and explore, to absorb the music that the artist had especially composed for the photographs, and to read the artist's words about why he had created these images. I felt pride in my ability to bring the project to fruition and to expose Fayetteville's residents to this talented artist that I admire.

There were many questions about the work, the artist, and my role in the project so I am going to try to answer some of those in today's post. The institute du loop is an individual who currently lives in Taipei Taiwan, he is an English born sound and visual artist. He has lived in Taiwan for 2 years and feels that he has truly found his home in the world and his artistic identity on the island.

I met the artist via myspace two and half years ago and was very taken with his work, and we became friends and have stayed in contact via email about art and life over the years. I have always encouraged him in his work and even before I was an artist in the underground, I was attempting to find him a space locally for an exhibition. I know how important it is to have someone in your corner supporting your work, and I also know how important it is to have deadlines and a focus for your work, so an exhibition is always a good thing. I wasn't even sure if he would be interested in showing his work in Fayetteville Arkansas but when I proposed it, he was excited about the opportunity. Over the years we have developed trust in each other and our artistic sensibilities and knew we could pull this off. I had never curated a show of this magnitude or involvement before, and this was my first experience curating an international exhibition. The artist and I have been working on this exhibition for months via hundreds of emails and msn chats. Talking about the content of the exhibition, logistics, expenses, gallery dimensions, design, display and pricing, we discussed and worked out every detail, compromises were made, and we both learned a lot because of the experience.

The exhibition arrived on the two flash drives, and the one hundred twenty-four photographs were printed here and each hand stamped with the loop stamp the artist had designed for the occasion. They were hand cut and meticulously mounted flush to the wall in a grid pattern.The institute picked the order of the photographs and which images would go on each wall. There were limited edition posters, postcards and booklets to design and print, and Cd's of the soundtrack to burn after the mounting of the exhibition. All of this to complete the artist's well thought out vision. There were many late, sleep deprived nights leading up to the show. I even moved my sleeping bag into the gallery and put a note on the gallery door asking not to be disturbed as the images were installed. It was such a thrill to remove the black paper from the glass walls of the gallery and see the exhibition as a whole. I contacted the artist after the installation was complete and told him I felt he needed a larger budget, a museum and a book deal as I was so impressed with what he had created.

People have asked me what I get out of this or if I get paid for doing this. The answer is, no I don't get paid for this work. I do this work because I believe in the power of art and I believe in this artist's vision. I do this work because I feel that I am part of a global arts community and I am to fortunate enough know some of the most amazing artists on the planet and if I have the ability to shine a little extra light on them, or encourage them by offering them an exhibition then I am going to do it. I also believe Fayetteville deserves high quality art from around the country and the world. I am very fortunate that I have the trust of the Fayetteville Underground and the artists I work with. I feel honored to be able to do this type of work, it expands my vision as an artist and it keeps me involved in the bigger picture. In August, Christian Demare from Paris France will also be featured in the Hive gallery, and in September Thomas Petillo from Nashville, Tennessee will be in the hive as well. These are photographers I love and I can't wait to share their work with folks who don't already know it.

institute du loop: a place to drown
on display through July 31.
Hive gallery Fayetteville Underground
gallery hours W-F 12-7 and Saturday 10-5

Photographs are $30 per image (open edition) and they are also priced by the wall collection. There is a booklet with a different set of images and words by the artist for $ 15.00 and the limited edition exhibition poster for $25.00. The soundtrack composed by the artist is also available for $10.00. Near or far, please contact me if you would like more information about this exhibition at megancha@gmail.com

I will close with a few words from the institute:

"After all the longing and drowning, after all the decisions about the layers of images and sequences, the "image pools" are on the walls..." -institute du loop

institute du loop: a place to drown from Megan Chapman on Vimeo.